Corrosion Control at Data Center Explained

Learn all Corrosion Control Prevention Methods

Corrosion Control or Monitoring at data centers is process of identification of contaminants or Pollutants present in the environment & measuring its effects to avoid major failures at data centers.

Data Centers are undoubtedly amongst the crucial elements of any organization that has gone digital. If data centers weren’t formed, people may have created online content such as music, apps, graphic or written, but there wouldn’t have been a source to save them. Many of us may not be aware, but data centers have been a part of the computing world since the beginning and they contribute to backup and recovery of data, as well as networking.

While these fundamental centers save our data from disappearing, it is our role to save them from corrosion. This is why we urge to educate organizations about Corrosion Control at Data Centers because even the slightest mishap may disrupt TBs of stored content.

Corrosion Control at data Centres & Indoor Air Quality Testing & Monitoring - Perfect Pollucon Services — Corrosion Control at Data Centre & Indoor Air Quality Testing & Monitoring – Perfect Pollucon Services

According to the research presented by ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers), the organisation spoke about Data Center Airborne Contamination. In the research, the American professional association mentioned that Data Centers are at major risk of hardware failures due to gaseous contamination.

Meaning, Data Centers need to understand the importance and significance of Indoor Air Quality Monitoring and how it helps to keep machines, computing equipment and others safe from failures and corrosion.

How building up corrosion at Data Centers is dangerous?

Data Centers mainly consist of metallic and non-metallic materials items that are highly prone to corrosion caused by Indoor Air Pollution. Some of the common component failures include hard disk drives (HDD), graphic cards, motherboards, DIMMs, capacitors, and transistors.

If these electronic components are affected, it can cause major damage to one’s entire data storage facility. Edge connectors are mostly at a higher risk in comparison to disk drives and film disks because they are made of copper and are situated on the circuit boards.

Significance of Corrosion Control at Data Centers

Technology has made everything so quick and easy, that a short downtime may result in a massive outrage of users on social media. But, how can Corrosion Control help Data Centers to provide quick services?

Major Contaminants or Pollutants in Data Centre

The answer is simple, a badly managed data center will have bad Indoor Air Quality filled with gaseous contaminants such as Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S), Sulphur Dioxide (SO2), Bromine and Oxides of Nitrogen, Chlorine etc. These gases cause electronic failures, an increase in downtime, and much more.

And, in a world where everything moves so quickly, especially after the introduction of 5G, users and businesses demand instantaneous information. Big computing equipment manufacturers like IBM, Intel, HP, CISCO, Dell, etc, support this ideology.

It has been noted that many Data Centers are quite good at keeping temperature and humidity under control, but they lack at controlling and monitoring dust and gaseous contamination because it requires a skilful approach from Indoor Air Quality experts like us. We have noticed that Data Centers located in industrial townships are more prone to gaseous contaminants, corrosion and Indoor Air Pollution.

Microsoft’s underwater data centre experiment seems to be way more efficient than a conventional one.
Data centres on the land are prone to corrosion from oxygen and humidity. #corrosioncontrol #DataCenter pic.twitter.com/noDNuynt8S

— Perfect Pollucon Services – Air Quality Monitoring (@PerfectPollucon) March 28, 2021

Corrosion Control is highly important for Data Centers located near –

High temperature locations
Landfill sites
Process Industries
Sewers/ Drains
High density traffic
Polluted environment

Advantages of Corrosion Monitoring at Data Centers

Corrosion Control keeps the hardware safe from getting corroded
Doing regular Corrosion Control helps in increasing the longevity of hardware equipment, machines, metals and more.
Keeps employees safe
Protects important data saved by users around the globe
Prevents electronic malfunctions
Decreases the chances of high downtime
Reduces maintenance cost
Increases productivity
Enables a healthy and safer environment for employees

Corrosion Testing Methods for Data Centre

At first, experts advise sealing all penetration points such as doors, windows, and walls in the data center
A smart Data Center owner makes sure to measure the reactivity rates or corrosion rate inside the data centre as well as in the outdoor air.
Next comes installing room pressure monitors, only if the design of the center needs positive pressure.
Next comes measuring airflow at the supply and exhaust air grills CRAC unit
Last on the list is developing a temperature and humidity profile of your data center.

Process of Corrosion Monitoring at Data Centres

According to various RoHS directives, data center owners, managers, and operators should incorporate IAQ and environmental contamination monitoring as a part of site planning, risk management, mitigation, and improvement plan. The improvement plan for Data Centre to control and eliminate contamination of Indoor Air Quality comprises of three parts –

At first, owners need to assess outdoor air and indoor air quality to understand the corrosion potential of the environment. To know about the types and levels of gaseous contamination, use ISA Standard 71.04 which will help you gain site-specific data and the amount of corrosion getting formed. You can hire professional air quality testing partners to do this for you like us.

You can also use CCCs (Corrosion classification coupons) as a survey tool to establish baseline data. It will help you to determine whether you need to take actions for corrosion control or not, and if yes, which ones.

Once you have determined that your Data Center has been contaminated, you need to come up with a specific corrosion control strategy. Experts believe that most of the time corrosion takes place in an indoor environment due to chemical contaminants or a combination of contaminants.

Knowing what type of measures to take, helps you to select and apply appropriate chemical filtration systems for cleaning the outdoor air being used for pressurization and ventilation.